Novel Hsp90 Inhibitors for Breast Cancer Treatment

Hsp90 (heat shock proteins) are popular cancer drug targets due to their anti-apoptotic activities. Several classes of Hsp90 inhibitors are in clinical trial.

Problem of the Present Art

Hsp90 inhibitors are often successful in diminishing or deactivating the Hsp90 in the cancer cells. However, inhibition of Hsp90 is associated with the overexpression of Hsp70 and Hsp27; and their anti-apoptotic activities.

Advantage of Invention

Researchers at GRU discovered that beauvericin and its certain derivatives are very effective inhibitors of Hsp90 and the inhibition does not generate heat shock responses (i.e. do not overexpress Hsp70 and Hsp27). This technology has the potential to be used as combination therapeutics for breast cancer treatments.